Magic - my thoughts

[AndyNick]

Just wanted to share my observations and Interested to hear others views on the weekend.

Firstly I'm a big fan of the concept and have attended every magic weekend except the ones in Cardiff and once again enjoyed it immensely. Value wise, £40 for 6 games of rugby league is in my opinion an absolute bargain.

Venue wise I was a bit unsure about St James Park. Don't get me wrong it's a great stadium, but I think it's far better suited for single games as opposed to an event like this, city centre location is ideal and Newcastle as a city was a lot of fun. However I think there were definitely improvements that could be made, firstly the fanzone. At the Etihad everything is all on the one site so it's easy to set up. This time it was fenced off on a nearby car park and didn't exactly look inviting. There was no merchandise for sale (not that I saw anyway, do please correct me if I'm wrong) I think it would have been better if the road outside the Gallowsgate stand or even on Leazes Park was set up. Also not allowing people in without a ticket, I'd have gone the other way, let fans without tickets in and have a box office set up.

Secondly the scheduling. Cas v Wakey was an odd choice for last game, I suspect to do with Sunday trains back to St Helens and Warrington resulting in most fans bar Cas/Wakey fans leaving after the second game. If they'd have swapped that with the Hull Derby I think more would have stayed and it would have meant a more even balance between the 2 days attendance as opposed to the 14000 different there was.

Will be interesting to see where they go with it. I suspect Newcastle will get another go next year. Heard talk at the weekend of taking it to France. That would be a bad idea in my opinion.

[cpwigan]

Great post.

The last day scheduling must be a nightmare. I presume journey times / transport scheduling plays a much bigger part that we appreciate.

Did you find much interest from native North East folk?

[AndyNick]

There were certainly a few local accents around the ground. Local businesses were keen to capitalise on it, plenty of bars offering drink discounts to people in rugby shirts and with tickets etc, and also a lot of locals just talking to us asking what it was all about.

Did bump into one local guy on the train in for Day 2 who asked us if it was sold out, when we said that it wasn't and told him where the ticket office was he was pleased and said that he had watched Day 1 on the TV and decided to come along on Day 2 as it looked a really good day out.

[East Stand Faithful]

Andy i agree with a lot of your comments.

I thought the fanzone was wierd in that surely the idea is to get people interested in the sport so why restrict access. Also the queues to get into the fanzone were a bit frustrating and as you say there wasnt much there.

I actually thought the venue was the best (i have been to all Magic venues so far). I thought the stadium size (for the size of the crowd) was ideal and it was far enough from Lance/Yorks to prevent people from leaving after their teams match and going home. Therefore most people watched more games and created a better atmosphere and it looked better on Tv the fact the stadium was fairly full. I spoke to Blake Solly (General Manager of Super League) on Saturday and he was very enthusiastic about the venue so it may well be in Newcastle next year.

I posted the comments below in the away days section:

"We set of at 930am Saturday morning and got to the ground about 1230.

We went up to the hospitality suite and had lunch at 1pm courtesy of the RFL.

We watched the Salford/Widnes game and then met my lad and his mates in the town and had a beer and chatted with the locals.

Got back and watched the Hull derby and then the big one.

Great game and sat in fromt of IFLs family (IFL wasnt at Magic this year not sure why -probably tapping up Shaun Edwards)

Drove home after the game and made it back at 1145pm.

I thought it was the best Magic and the stadium size was ideal for the event.

The locals were very firendly."

[AndyNick]

I agree with your point to about the crowd being constant throughout the day. Particularly Saturday most of the crowd were in by HT of Salford v Widnes and stayed to the end. Wasn't so much the case on Sunday, the worst offenders being Warrington who most arrived during the 2nd half of the Catalans V Huddersfield game and left straight after their game, although as I said earlier I suspect that was probably to do with the time of the last train back to Warrington. In Manchester there was very much a tenancy for fans to only watch their own game.

[doc]

Isn't IFL on one of the FA boards to do with the FA Cup? Probably down at Wembley for the final. Stupid idea by the RFL to have Magic on Cup Final weekend but I guess Sky wanted to televise an alternative attraction.

[Owd Codger]

Isn't IFL on one of the FA boards to do with the FA Cup? Probably down at Wembley for the final. Stupid idea by the RFL to have Magic on Cup Final weekend but I guess Sky wanted to televise an alternative attraction.

Exactly, what if Newcastle or indeed City were to be in the football final.

What chance of getting into the pubs then?